- Published
Lives "will be lost" unless more is done to combat the increasing risk of wildfires, the chairwoman of the UK's Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said after a record number of blazes this summer.
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chairwoman → publish → blazes
Baroness Brown told BBC File on 4 Investigates "not enough action" had been taken in light of predictions the UK is facing longer, drier summers because of global warming.
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UK → tell → warming
Earlier this year, one man died in a wildfire in Gloucestershire, while 19 homes were destroyed in Stourbridge, near Birmingham, and villagers were evacuated in the Cairngorms.
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villagers → die → Cairngorms
The government said it was investing nearly £100m to improve national resilience capabilities, which includes piloting specially trained firefighting teams.
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which → say → teams
UK 'not prepared for the changing climate'
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UK → change → climate
As far back as 2012, the independent CCC warned of "more frequent wildfires due to warmer and drier conditions".
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CCC → warn → conditions
File on 4 Investigates has seen figures from the National Fire Chiefs Council showing that 2026 set a new all-time high, with 1,350 wildfires in England and Wales, up by more than 300 on last year and more than 1,000 on 2024.
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2026 → see → 2024
Records for the number of reported wildfires were also broken in 2022 and 2025.
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Records → report → 2022
Baroness Brown said the CCC, formed in 2008, has been telling the government for years that the UK is "not prepared for the changing climate".
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UK → say → climate
She continued: "The warnings have been there and not enough action has been taken.
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action → continue → ?
"I fear that lives will be lost.
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lives → fear → ?
We need to be doing much more education and preparation."
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We → need → education
She said that included investing in specialist teams and equipment, but also "planning our woodlands, thinking about fire breaks" and early warning systems.
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that → say → breaks
By 2050, she said the risk of wildfires could be doubled across much of the UK.
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risk → say → UK
'No-one should have this experience'
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one → have → experience
Uttam and Sandy Shiralkar are still coming to terms with the loss of their family home in Stourbridge after it was engulfed by a wildfire in August.
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it → come → August
Sandy, a surgeon, said: "We saw the complete destruction of the house.
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We → say → house
No-one should have this experience."
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one → have → experience
The fires started accidentally in fields in Stourbridge, where farming machinery was in use on the hottest day of the year.
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machinery → start → year
The couple are now living in temporary accommodation.
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couple → live → accommodation
Uttam said: "Every loss is painful, but losing a house has got a different dimension.
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losing → say → dimension
Coming back to normality is going to take a long time."
Fire crews dangerously overstretched
While the risk of wildfires is on the rise, the number of firefighters has been in decline.
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number → come → decline
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, which represents firefighters, said more than a fifth of firefighter and control room posts across the UK – some 12,000 jobs - had been cut since 2010, which left crews dangerously overstretched over the summer.
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which → represent → summer
"We had firefighters from London being mobilised to Yorkshire, firefighters from Merseyside being mobilised to Dorset
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firefighters → have → Dorset
," he said.
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he → say → ?
"The effect, when you have wildfires happening at the same time across the UK, is there's just not enough firefighters on the ground to be able to deal with them."
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wildfires → have → them
Phil Garrigan, chairman of the National Fire Chiefs Council, which represents senior managers of the UK's fire and rescue services, said he welcomed the £97m investment to provide six specialist firefighting teams to work across the UK.
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he → represent → UK
But he insisted more money was needed to boost aerial firefighting capability and improve specialist equipment for firefighters.
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money → insist → firefighters
He said: "The money has to be there, otherwise we'll be going into 2027 and 2028 with a likely occurrence that we'll see what we've seen in 2026, which is 50 plus homes lost and families devastated by the impacts of wildfire.
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which → say → wildfire
We've got to get ahead of that."
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We → get → that
State-of-the-art equipment such as dedicated off-road vehicles will be bought as part of the £97m investment, which the government said was funding the biggest upgrade to national resilience for 20 years.
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government → buy → years
The Aporia
